VHP to urge MPs across party lines to rally for Ram temple

After holding a big ‘Dharma Sabha’ on Sunday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is now planning to send its representatives to meet Members of Parliament (MP) from across party lines and seek their help for an early construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. The constituency-wise drive will start in the first week of December.

Besides, VHP will also hold similar ‘Dharma Sabhas’ but on a smaller scale across the state to garner help for the cause. Office bearers said that in order to reach out to the public for these meetings, each medium would be adopted.

“We are going to meet all the MPs and urge them to think above party lines, in the name of Ram, and also inform them that they should exercise their personal opinion,” said Bholend, organizational secretary of VHP’s Awadh Prant.

“Before 1992, when people were told how Ram was residing inside a jail, they took the movement forward. Similarly, through these meetings, the public will be told how the same lord is now living inside a tent because of the stubbornness of a few people. It will be the public who will again hold the lead,” he said.

“The VHP will also be holding pledge-taking programmes at various places in the country in the help of the Ram temple. This will commence on Gita Jayanti and will continue for almost a week,” Bholend said.

VHP spokesperson in Ayodhya, Sharad Sharma, said, “A similar Dharma Sabha is scheduled to be held in Delhi on December 9, in which over 5 lakh people are likely to turn up. Then on January 31 and February 1, we are going to conduct a Dharma Sansad in Prayagraj in which more than 5,000 seers from across the country are likely to participate. Seers from southern and north-eastern states have been specifically invited.”

The Dharma Sansad will deliberate on several issues, including Ram Temple, cow protection and River Ganga.

“Social harmony will be another matter on which detailed discussions will be held,” Sharma said.

“Through the Dharma Sabha, we were able to send a message that the Hindu society wants a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya,” Sharma stated, adding that a roadmap for the next course of action will be finalized during the 2019 Kumbh in Prayagraj.

The ‘Dharam Sabha’ is being looked by the Opposition as an effort by the saffron brigade to test waters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. “Despite the issue being sub-judice, there is an extraordinary hurry on the part of the VHP, BJP and their associates to give another push to the issue which was dormant for the last four years. The BJP is losing its ground in and around Ayodhya, and the Dharam Sabha was a desperate act to revitalize its cadre.